1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the fields of molecular immunology and virology. More specifically, the present invention relates to nucleotide sequence of the nucleocapsid gene of oropouche virus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Oropouche (ORO) virus, the causative agent of oropouche fever, has emerged during the past 30 years as an increasing health problem in tropical regions of South and Central America. Since 1961 a number of epidemics of oropouche fever have been recorded involving several thousand people. Oropouche fever in humans is characterized by abrupt onset of fever, chills, severe headache, generalized myalgia, arthralgia, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, weakness, dizziness, and photophobia. Because of the non-specific nature of symptoms and paucity of diagnostic virus laboratories in the oropouche-endemic region, the disease often is either unrecognized or misdiagnosed as being an infection caused by dengue or other similar viruses.
The oropouche virus belongs to the genus Bunyavirus of family Bunyaviridae. Based on antigenic characteristics, the bunyavirus genus has been divided into 18 serogroups and oropouche virus is one of 25 viruses that have been placed in Simbu serogroup. The genome of oropouche virus consists of three segments of single stranded, negative sense RNA designated as Large (L), Medium (M) and Small (S) RNAs. The L RNA encodes the L (RNA polymerase) protein; the M RNA encodes two glycoproteins G1 and G2 and a nonstructural protein NSm; and the S RNA encode nucleocapsid (NP) protein and a non-structural (NSs) protein.
To date, the molecular biology of bunyaviruses has focused on a small number of viruses and very little information is available on other viruses, especially the Simbu serogroup viruses. The S RNA has been sequenced for several members of Bunyamwera and California encephalitis serogroups but only Tinaroo, Akabane and Aino viruses have been sequenced for the Simbu serogroup.
Current techniques for the identification and diagnosis of Oropouche infection include neutralization test, hemaglutination inhibition and complement fixation to detect anti-oropouche antibodies. ELISA using antigen produced from infectious virus has also been used but production of antigen is expensive, hazardous and highly variable from batch to batch. This ELISA also gives too many "false positives".
The prior art is deficient in the lack of knowledge of many aspects of the molecular biological properties of oropouche virus, including the nucleotide sequence of the nucleocapsid gene of oropouche virus. The present invention fulfills this long-standing need and desire in the art.